Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception

Just finished this graphic novel game called, ” Utawarerumono” developed by Sting. It came out recently and has been the talk of the gaming town for everyone to play. When I first saw it I didn’t know what to think of it, so like always when I’m not sure about a game I go ahead and watch the trailer and see if its good or not. I was kind of put back because the trailer made it look so innocent looking for me, but when you look at the back of the cover it, obviously, says partial nudity, sexual themes, violence, etc, etc.

So, why is that?

Could they not find the right moments that would hint at that? Just to show you what I mean I’m going to show you this trailer for all you folks who haven’t seen or heard of the game yet. If you have then, you can go right ahead and skip over it.

Since, this is graphic novel game I already knew that their would be a lot of talking and cut scenes in the game which I was totally prepared for. What I wasn’t expecting was actually fighting in RPG fighting style battles. I was totally happy with that development, since most graphic novel games don’t let the players do this. At the same time, I was kind of disappointed because the battles are far apart from each other and it was more like I was playing chess than anything. If you’ve already played it then you know what I’m talking about. If I had to guess, I would say that I fought about 8 times in the entire game.

My favorite characters to use to fight with and in the story were Oshtor, Kuon(aka secret badass), Atuy( aka the mad princess) and the twins Saraana and Uruuru. Before, I get into them though let me bring you up to speed with the story. It starts with a man waking up on top of a snowy mountain who is later called, “Haku”. He’s wearing nothing but hospital robes, has no memory of who he is or why he’s there in the first place and you can tell right away that he doesn’t fit in whatever world he’s stumbled upon. Later, he gets rescued by Kuon from a giant red slime monster which I still think to this day was trying to tell him something. My theory is that it knew him and was trying to speak to him because it probably hadn’t seen him in forever. That scene was both in the anime and in the game and while the game story progressed I became more confident in my theory that the red slime was someone he used to know.

No, I’m not going to start talking about the anime, too. Sorry, but that rant is for another time and if I start comparing the two we’re going to be here all god damn day. So, moving on…….

After, being saved from death, Kuon vows to become his guardian and not leave him alone until she is sure that he can make it on his own. Thus begins their journey to the imperial capital, where they meet a lot of strange and strong people. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, but it seems Haku is the only live human around. Everyone else looks human, but they all have tails, cat-like ears and amazing strength. On this journey to find work, he discovers conspiracies, secrets, new friends and his forgotten memories.

The story behind this game will leave you at the edge of your chair and wondering WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! There are a lot of touching and sad moments in this game that will leave you teary eyed and moments that make you go NNNNOOOOOOO! If you love a good story then I would definitely play this game and if you end up being in love with it like I did and want to know if their is a sequel then you’re in luck because there is one. The sequel ,” Mask of Truth”, comes on September 5th.

I’m totally pumped up for that and I hope you all are, too!

Thanks for Reading!